All Things Considered for Saturday, September 28, 2013

The House is in a rare Saturday session and will vote on amendments to the Senate-passed bill to keep the government from going into a partial shutdown. NPR's Tamara Keith tells host Arun Rath the main amendment would delay the Affordable Care Act by a year.

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The new federal health law has a few exemptions from its insurance mandate, including health care sharing ministries. Members pay a monthly fee to help cover some of each other's medical costs — but there are no guarantees.

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Arizona Fire officials release their report on the Yarnell Hill fire, which killed 19 firefighters. It was the worst loss of life in a wildfire in 80 years. Host Arun Rath speaks with NPR's Ted Robbins.

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The poor, farm-dependent city of Fresno in California's Central Valley has one of the highest per capita homeless populations in the country. City officials there are expected to dismantle a large homeless encampment on the outskirts of downtown any day now. NPR's Kirk Siegler tells host Arun Rath that advocates for the homeless are scrambling to find alternatives for the displaced.

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In the central State of Mexico, authorities are trying a new approach to fight corruption: replacing notoriously crooked male traffic cops with women. But the state hasn't authorized the female force to issue tickets yet, and some question whether women will avoid bribery any more than men.

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In The Faithful Scribe, Shahan Mufti examines the history of Pakistan and that nation's relationship to the U.S. He interweaves the story of his own family with the tumultuous story of the nation. Mufti talks with NPR's Arun Rath about the future of the world's first Islamic democracy.

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Anya von Bremzen's new memoir is a delicious narrative of memory and cuisine in 20th century Soviet Union. She writes about her family's own history and contemplates the nation's "complicated, even tortured, relationship with food."